Doing science: Jonathan Coulton to create music for Portal 2

Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" made waves as the ending theme of Portal, so …

Portal was something of a perfect storm. Game mechanics that felt new, a story that tied into the world of Half-Life, a length that didn't outstay its own welcome, and to really drive the point home the end credits featured the instantly memorable song "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton. The song and the game built on the success of one another, creating one of the most memorable moments in modern gaming.

In a phone interview last Thursday, I brought up "Still Alive" and asked Coulton whether he'd be interested in doing a follow-up. "I will be doing music for Portal 2 as well, yeah. You know, I think Valve and I were both really happy with how 'Still Alive' turned out, and it was an overwhelmingly popular response to something we thought was maybe gonna be a bit weird and unusual," he explained.

"We weren't sure how it was gonna go. And so it's gonna be hard to live up to that success, and it was sort of a surprise to everyone, us included, so ... I don't know, we'll see. The sequel is always a troublesome thing, and sequels are rarely better than the original. Empire Strikes Back is the only exception that I can think of."

With such a high bar set by his first entry into the world of video game music, anything else is going to have to be incredible to live up to the promise of the first Portal release. Still, new Coulton is a good thing, and it's great to hear that he'll be back in the sequel.

But I remember that Portal was just this side of long enough. It didn't leave me wanting more, it made me happy it ended when it did (culminating in the Still Alive song, too). A full-fledged, single-product sequel can't be as short (well, not for a full-fledged price), so I'm doubtful it will work as well.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I refute that. I'll give you Terminator, though.

I think the whole portal experience was fresh enough that an out of box ending song fit perfectly. It's not like it was that incredible on its own. It only worked when playing through the entire (short) game. That's what defines the quality of the soundtrack: how well it fits with what it's accompanying.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I refute that. I'll give you Terminator, though.

I think the whole portal experience was fresh enough that an out of box ending song fit perfectly. It's not like it was that incredible on its own. It only worked when playing through the entire (short) game. That's what defines the quality of the soundtrack: how well it fits with what it's accompanying.

Right there with ya on Batman Begins vs. The Dark Knight. We're definitely in the minority on that one, though.

With Portal 2... well... it'll be different. It has to be. I don't think the narrative style of the original would work for a 12 hour game. But Valve seems to be aware of that, and whatever it is they plan on doing, if there's a company that can somehow keep it all fresh, it's them.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I refute that. I'll give you Terminator, though.

I think the whole portal experience was fresh enough that an out of box ending song fit perfectly. It's not like it was that incredible on its own. It only worked when playing through the entire (short) game. That's what defines the quality of the soundtrack: how well it fits with what it's accompanying.

Right there with ya on Batman Begins vs. The Dark Knight. We're definitely in the minority on that one, though.

With Portal 2... well... it'll be different. It has to be. I don't think the narrative style of the original would work for a 12 hour game. But Valve seems to be aware of that, and whatever it is they plan on doing, if there's a company that can somehow keep it all fresh, it's them.

I'll third the Batman Begins > The Dark Knight. Ledger was a great Joker, but Chicago was an awful Gotham. Also EMPIRE FTFW. (;

I'm hoping that Portal 2 will be more real-world puzzles. Portal 1 felt like one hell of a tutorial. I'm hoping to see Chell find her way to the missing Aperture Labs ship and be involved with background scenario for HL2:ep3 - similarly to how Barney bumps through the HL1 back story in Half-Life: Blue Shift. A crossing of the stories would be awesome and I'd love to play Gordon with a Portal Gun too (:< Guess we'll see what happens.

Also, saying that Batman Begins was better than the Dark Knight is ludicrous. While both films suffered from a conspicuous lack of Kevin Conroy, there's no doubt that The Dark Knight was the superior film.

Am I the only one that doesn't get all worked up over that song? Sure it was fairly entertaining, but it wasn't anything I'd ever listen to again. The game was interesting because of the puzzles, not because of the plot or music. I'm looking forward to the second one for the co-op puzzles, not for whatever songs they put into it.

I've been a huge fan of Jonathan Coulton for years, now. The inclusion of a new song by him for this project is welcome news. Ellen McLain -has- to be on board as voice talent.. the game would just not be the same without her.

Farming wasn't really better than Hunting and Gathering, at least over the long haul. Humanity had a much better chance of extended survival as hunter gatherers than they do now. Not because we're all gonna die from global warming but because if something bad does happen, it will be very difficult to recover from. Humanity is very brittle now, at least in developed nations. I guess the under developed world is there to save the species.

The true greatness of Portal's writing was how little of it there actually was, which is proof that you don't need hours' worth of cutscenes to tell a brilliant story in a game. I hope Portal 2 is the same. The trick will be avoiding spoilers before I play it. I don't even want to know the setup.

[quote="zee_jay"The true greatness of Portal's writing was how little of it there actually was, which is proof that you don't need hours' worth of cutscenes to tell a brilliant story in a game.[/quote]

There was quite a lot of writing, actually. GLaDOS borrows heavily from the Shodan school of oppressive female AIs who taunt you as you explore. The difference you're probably noticing is that they didn't break out into cutscenes - but nearly every major part of the game had GLaDOS telling you something or other, especially at the end where she's telling you that you've missed your party.

Of course, let's see here... given how long it's been since Valve started talking about HL2:EP3 along with that one piece of concept art, I'd say we might see Portal 2 some time in 2020.

Have you actually played those games, or are you saying that BT isn't better than BK? A reasonable case can be made that one of the two is the best platformer released for the N64 (which had one of the best platformers of all time - SM64 - as a launch game). BK was a fantastic game. (I thought BT was as well, generally the reviews agree that BT was superior).